The Holy Father is Coming...the Liberals Quake!

Catholic Voices are coming...and they're not the voices the UK are used to! Hopefully the majority will be voxes catholicam. My Latin is terrible, isn't it?

Mark Dowd of The Guardian is worried about the Holy Father's visit. He's not worried about his safety, oh no. He's not worried about him being pilloried in public, oh no. Having swooned at Pope John Paul II when he graced the UK, he doesn't much fancy Pope Benedict XVI by the sounds of things. The former friar turned big public spokesman on Catholic issues, at, err, The Guardian, the paper so renowned for running in front of buses to push the Pope out of the way of oncoming media calamities, is worried that truly Catholic voices will be heard by Our Lady's Dowry. Well, it may be that a chap from Opus Dei is doing the PR for the Holy Father's visit because some within the Church are aware of just how popular the Holy Father is amongst our Bishops. Now, where's that cardigan I'm so fond of...

"The Pope is coming! The Pope is coming!" cry excited Catholics and this time, with no tricky Falklands diplomacy to navigate around, it is to be an official visit. In early autumn, Benedict XVI will be accorded all the pomp normally associated with a head of state. So why am I already full of fear and apprehension? After all, in May 1982, when John Paul II came to these shores, I got up at 4am, donned my white Dominican habit (yes I was a friar for a brief period from 1981 to 1983), and joined five thousand other religious in Roehampton. We sang. We cheered and waved our wee yellow and white flags with the Holy See's coat of arms on them. The Popemobile swept past within an inch or two. John Paul. What a face! He positively seemed to look through me. He smiled. I felt reduced to total insignificance, yet touched by something from beyond. Only the Polish Pope has ever had that kind of effect on me...' [Full article here]

And this is the best bit of the whole, rather shoddy article.

'In truth, this is a scary time to be a liberal Catholic. '

Ha-hah! Isn't it just!? Good time to be a Catholic though, wouldn't you say?!